@Tannfee thanks for the suggestion. I diabled the “Fingerprint unlock behaviour” as well now and the problem has gotten better somewhat. I get less failed attempts.
I really hope that they fix this in a future software update.
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After 5 days I can resonate it works well for me.
I have had the error “too many attempts” only once since.
I saw in the statistics that I unlock my phone around 50 times per day. So hardly a hardware issue.
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I suddenly have problems with fingerprint access on my FP4. Half the time I have to use my password. Is there a fix? Otherwise, it has worked perfectly.
Steen
Have you tried rescanning your fingers?
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Hi all,
I’ve received my Fairphone 4 yesterday and have encountered a similar problem. While I don’t seem to have issues with recognising my finger/thumbprint when I’m doing it as intended, the sensor can go crazy and try and process several unlock attempts in a fraction of a second.
This means that, if I mistakenly brush the scanner with a non-fingerprint part of my finger when I pick it up, the sensor is sometimes already ‘timed out’ from too many wrong attempts.
It’s behaved this way out of the box - surely there could be some software fix which just limits attempts within rapid succession. I’m not sure what the sensible limit would be but 5 registered attempts in half a second or so is quite a lot!
EDIT: just to clarify, the above is in reference to the phone when “Fingerprint Unlock Behaviour” is switched on, meaning you don’t press the power button first to unlock the phone. The solution is pretty much just to turn that function off at the moment, so that you have to press the power button first, meaning your finger is likely to be in the right place for the scanner. But this is just an extra step to solve a problem I haven’t had on other phones.
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I thought this is laready fixed since the second or third update of FPOS for FP4?!
And it is already implemented yet in LOS.
https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_frameworks_base/+/321160
To enable fingerprint only when display is on. And problem with multiple attemps is gone
In LOS/iode 3.0
can be found in settings/security → settings of screen lock (gear icon) → Screen off fingerprint
Cannot remember anymore where it is in FPOS settings…
Here: Found the Thread.
The approach in FPOS and LOS is exactly the opposite, but with the same result and technical implementation
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I am on the latest update and yes - it has been fixed. I just tried it and the phone makes just a single attempt when I place a finger or a finger part. And makes a second attempt only after I lift my finger and place it back on the sensor. Nice!
Really glad to see that the community voice has been heard 
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@xenotaph - I have the same issue also. Not all the time, but sometimes a light touch will trigger a burst of ‘attempts’ which will then cause the phone to say ‘too many attempts’ and require the password to unlock.
Latest OS update applied, etc. Still does it.
Did you check the status of the finger unlock behavior linked two posts above?
Just as I was super excited this got fixed and today the old behavior (with the multiple unlock attempts) is back. I will test a bit more in the coming days and post again here in the thread.
Sorry for getting people’s hopes up prematurely.
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Did the new update that was released yesterday improve anything for you? I find it odd that people still have this issue. It works perfectly fine for me. Have you tried to re-enroll your fingers? Maybe you didn’t scan them properly and thus it doesn’t work reliable? Just a guess.
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Perhaps you could try to put a clear tape over the fingerprint snesor and registering the finger multiple times,
If I put the correct part of my registered finger the scanner works really well. It’s recognized almost all of the time.
The issue is not unreliability in recognizing the registered fingers. The issue is that if you touch the sensor with anything else (a non-registered finger, the wrong part of your registered finger, or perhaps a non-finger, like your palm) it makes very fast consecutive readings, which locks the scanner before you have the chance to realise what happens.
Scenario 1: I pick up my phone with my left arm, click the lock button with any non-registered finger to wake the screen, only to check the time. At this point the scanner will start to scan this finger and it will do 5 readings very fast and lock the fingerprint although I didn’t have the intention to unlock my phone. But if I decide to unlock it now, I have to wait for the timeout.
Scenario 2: I pick the phone try to unlock it using my registered finger. By my mistake I put the wrong part of the finger, the scanner makes several readings, so quickly, that I cannot react to correct the finger position and I end up with a locked fingerprint and I need to wait for the timeout.
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To fix this issue the scanner need to make only 1 reading while my finger is pressed down. It needs to wait for me to lift my finger and put it back down, before it makes a second reding. OR it needs to have some timout period before it makes a second reading.
So far both of these are not present in the last updates.
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Hmm!
The sensor must react to electrically acitiviy, i.e. the finger effects the status quo. As the finger nears the sensor it reacts maybe 0.1mm away which is a sensitivity issue that isn’t user adjustable.
Then as the finger moves closer it ‘reads’ the print and if ‘in tune’ unlocks.
Now of course there is the time scale.
The sensor may lock on to the finger-print every 10mS or every 60mS, so the speed at which the finger approaches the sensor matters. 5 locks in 50mS or 5 locks in 300mS. It would be useful for the user to be able to adjust this.
I would imagine the general idea is that each person will adapt their behaviour to get the ‘best’ results.
I believe they already applied something like that. When I first got my Fairphone, 6 months ago the fingerprint reader sometimes indeed did a burst of scans within a second. The only way I can somewhat reproduce the issue is by using a finger that I never enrolled and slowly slide it from left to right on the scanner. But it then only tries every half second or so. Which is fine, you want to unlock your phone quickly. It works instantly with any other finger that is scanned. Even if I put them in the most impractical positions. I rarely get an error, but when I do it doesn’t burst right into “too many attempts”.
So I’m not sure what I’m doing right here which doesn’t work for you guys. Any word from FP support? I personally really think this issue is resolved. I would say re-enroll your fingers and make sure you place your finger correctly. Which for me is no problem at all. Even with the official protective case which makes the fingerprint scanner harder to press.
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Hi,
why is this bug marked as solved? I cannot find any solution in the thread?
I got this problem too and it’s really annoying.
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Where does it say it has been solved ??
Because it is solved here:
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That doesn’t actually solve it: it just adds the option to unlock and turn on with a single press. When I tried that, it was so prone to causing this problem that I turned it off at once.
The problem does still happen, even with turn-on and unlock as two distinct presses: it happened to me just this morning. The fingerprint sensor is still prone to detecting a single press as dozens of presses a fraction of a second apart, particularly when your finger happens not to be well-centred. By the time you recentre it it’s too late… this should be soluble in software with a simple half-second hysteresis value or something. I don’t know why fixing it is taking so long.
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